Mathwire – Back to School Glyph Ideas! Glyphs are great data activities that make students think in order to display data and then require focus and analysis and interpretation of the data they have displayed!

Have your students work with Array Flashcards for Multiplication. This is a great idea, They should actually make their own flashcards and then play with them. They could either pull – product side up and have to name the factors or pull-factor side up and name the product.

“Think! Think and wonder. Wonder and think. How much water can 55 elephants drink?” — Dr. Seuss

In the beginning of the year, make sure you set up thinking routines. You want to develop these throughout the year. Students should be taught to “think and wonder” outloud during math class. Provide many opportunities where they can practices this. Do Math Think Alouds from the first few days. Practice and your students will get really good at it. Be sure to look at the First 20 days to get an idea of rolling this out!

Make big ten frames! There are lots of ways to make these. Go to the nearest fabric store and get inspired. You could also go to the dollar store and use shower curtains! Big Floor Ten Frames allow students to act it out! We want students to ACT IT OUT with their bodies as well as work it out with manipulatives! Go for it! Let your students Stand and be counted!

Be sure to have your students talk about what they are doing. You can use these several ways. First, you can hold your guided math group at the Big Ten Frame. As the students act out problems, you can discuss them. Be sure to act out all the CGI story types that are recommended by the CCSS. Second, you can make this a center where children go and pull cards and then act out either equations (4+5=?), expressions (4+3) or word problems.

Counting the days of the year is a great routine! Be sure to keep counting after the 100th day! A lot of people tend to stop, but school continues! Actually, I would have a wall routine, where students either write the day of the school year on a chart or a post it and ALSO I would have them keep track on a grid in their calendar folders (because everybody should have their own calendar folders).

Sesame Street has done a few seasons where they had The Number of the Day daily segments. Check out the collection here! Sing them with your class. Set them up in a listening center! Have fun and learn lots!

Ok, here we go again! This time with the links!!!! Math Vocabulary is SO important. Here is a site to jumpstart your program that is aligned with the CCSS. Look at the Dual Immersion link to find the lists in English, Spanish, Chinese and French. Also there are several graphic organizers, foldables and general ideas! Check it out.

Modeling the Math seems to be a sticky area for a great deal of people that I meet. Here is a good unit that shows modeling of fractions. Do these lessons in small guided math groups and do follow-up activities in math centers. Most people wrestle with fractions and the more opportunities that students have to discuss them and see them modeled in small groups is really important. So, spend some time working with the concrete and pictorial representation of fractions in small groups before you get to the algorithm. BUILD THE CONCEPTUAL UNDERSTANDING!!!

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